Asynchronous communication network for multi-element integrated circuit system

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the invention include a system for communication within an integrated circuit. Hardware object nodes are connected to one another through a system of physical channels. Messages are sent from one node to another over the channels. The messages can be asynchronous in nature, as well as time-insensitive. The output of the object nodes is similar no matter the size or makeup of the system of physical channels.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from and is a division of applicationU.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/871,347, entitled Data Interface forHardware Objects, filed on Jun. 18, 2004, currently pending, whichitself claims priority from U.S. Provisional patent application60/479,759, filed Jun. 18, 2003, entitled Integrated Circuit DevelopmentSystem, the contents of both applications are incorporated by referenceherein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to an integrated circuit development system,and, more particularly, to an integrated circuit development systemincluding hardware objects, a communication fabric facilitating messagesbetween hardware objects, and a system that allows softwarerepresentation and execution of systems on the hardware objects.

BACKGROUND

Integrated circuit (IC) design and development is presently a verydifficult and expensive process. An ever-widening design gap isappearing as the stringent constraints of today's ASIC (ApplicationSpecific Integrated Circuit) methodologies and EDA (Electronic DesignAutomation) tools are causing designers to fail at effectively using allthe extra gates that each new fabrication technology offers.

Full custom design has become extremely expensive, even when thosedesigns result in massively regular structures, such as cache memory,because the exponentially increasing complexity in the low-level detailsof each new fabrication technology do not allow much new design in theavailable time. IC speeds are being limited by present dayarchitectures, which have an ever increasing need for long wires andmore and more interconnections between chip components. This increasedamount of interconnection is causing a new manufacturing paradigm wheredefects in the wiring dominate.

As fabrication technology continues to advance to transistor densitiesnear one billion transistors on a single die, it is becoming apparentthat the steeply rising design costs, exponentially increasingverification effort, inherent limitations of present day design tools,and the inability to effectively re-use what has gone before will makefuture development extremely expensive and only available to few.

Illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B is an example process to create an ICusing ASICs and FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array). The design beginsby creating a system model, illustrated here as interconnected functionsAs, Bs, and Cs. The system model can be modeled in any manner; such amodeling system includes, for example, a block diagram, a UnifiedModeling Language (UML) model or a data flow graph. Once the systemmodel is finished, a software description is created by hand, which isboth time-consuming and is difficult to check. The software descriptionmay be created in, for example, C, C++, Java, Matlab, Smalltalk orSystem C. Next the software description is hand translated in to aRegister Transfer Level (RTL) description that can be used to create alogic gate model of the system. RTL is a generic term for HardwareDescription Languages (HDL), such as Verilog or VHDL, which can be usedto generate the logic gate model through synthesis. RTL is used tocreate both ASIC (FIG. 1A) or FPGA (FIG. 1B) solutions. Again,translating from the software description to RTL by hand is bothtime-consuming and difficult to check. For an ASIC, once synthesis hascreated the logic gate model, more software is used to place and routethe functional gates, using semi-automated hardware layout tools. Oncelaid out, the generated patterns are optimized to account for opticaleffects in the manufacturing process. It should be noted that there aremany iterations needed to optimize the process, and some of theoptimizations are manually performed. Finally, a mask set is created andused to make the particular designed ASIC.

With reference to FIG. 1B, similar processes occur for creating an FPGA.Again an RTL description and synthesis is used to develop the logic gatemodel. Several iterations may be required to ensure the designphysically fits onto the target part. Once the mapping is known, thedesign is tested to ensure the timing requirements are met. If thetiming design requirements are not initially met, the structure of theRTL must be altered until both the mapping and the timing requirementsare satisfied. For example, it is quite often necessary to have multiplerepetitions of the same logic which run in parallel to ensure the timingconstraints can be met; this can only be accomplished by altering theRTL description. Finally, the logic mapping for every element on theFPGA is loaded into a ROM. When the FPGA device is powered on, all theFPGA elements are automatically loaded from the ROM to create thedesired function.

Because of the shrinking size of transistors and other IC components,full-custom design will require many more designers than are used at thepresent, which adds huge complexity and requires exponentially more timeand resources to develop compared to the present state of the art. In anattempt to reduce the hardware complexity and reduce the verificationrisk of making a mistake in the hardware, many systems are now using amixture of hardware and software. In this new paradigm, performance istraded-off against using software running on programmable hardware formany of the components so that functionality and bugs can be fixed afterthe device has been manufactured. This co-design process, where softwareand hardware co-exist to create the solution, is a problem that has beenexplored extensively in the last twenty years with little success.

Extensive re-use of hardware and software components, essential toensuring that large, complex designs can be executed and verified withina reasonable time, has proven to be unachievable and has only beenmanaged in a limited sense within small, tightly-knit design centers.

Embodiments of the invention address these and other limitations in theprior art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating typical processes used to designASICs.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating typical processes used to designFPGAs.

FIG. 2 is a timing diagram illustrating a data transfer protocol.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an abstract view of a dataregister.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating another abstract view of aprotocol register according to embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a protocol register that includescombinational logic.

FIGS. 6A-6E are block diagrams illustrating a behavior of a datapipeline formed of a series of protocol registers.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of another protocol register according toembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a protocol register according toembodiments of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a state transition diagram for the protocol register of FIG.8.

FIG. 10 illustrates two block diagrams of a data packet showing invaliddata members.

FIG. 11 illustrates how two data packets can be combined.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing how a traditional FIFO element can beintegrated into the invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing how a hardware object can beconstructed using protocol registers.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing equivalent combinations of fork,join and protocol registers.

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram showing an asynchronous implementation ofa protocol register.

FIG. 16 is a timing diagram showing pseudo-asynchronous clockgeneration.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing a pseudo-asynchronous implementationof a protocol register.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of an example hardware object.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating how hardware objects can bedefined from existing hardware objects.

FIGS. 20A-20C are block diagrams illustrating different types ofhardware objects.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating another type of hardware object.

FIG. 22 is a block diagram illustrating how hardware objects cancommunicate with one another using messages.

FIG. 23 is a block diagram illustrating a messaging fork object.

FIG. 24 is a block diagram illustrating a messaging join object.

FIG. 25 illustrates an example re-configurable chip having a number ofphysically formed hardware objects.

FIG. 26 is a block diagram illustrating an object library used inconjunction with a re-configurable chip for developing systems.

FIG. 27 is a block diagram illustrating software object hierarchy.

FIG. 28 is a block diagram illustrating a software model of a hardwaresystem.

FIG. 29 is a block diagram illustrating how software objects are mappedonto a re-configurable chip.

FIG. 30 is a block diagram illustrating additional information that canbe attached to each software object system.

FIG. 31 is a flow diagram illustrating processes used in developingsoftware systems for implementation on a re-configurable chip.

FIGS. 32-35 are diagrams illustrating an example system that can becreated using embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention include a system for an integrated circuitdevelopment. Elements of the development system include hardware andsoftware objects. These objects can be instanced, ordered,parameterized, and connected in a software environment to implementdifferent functions. Once in software, the description defines thetopology and properties of a set of objects. These objects arehierarchically composed from other objects. The lowest level in thehierarchy is denoted a primitive object. By using a piece of hardwarethat can both implement the function and maintain the essentialproperties of a software object, the topology and properties of thesoftware description is all that is required to define a piece ofhardware that can perform the desired functions. Using embodiments ofthe invention, circuit designers can design hardware systems with littleor no knowledge of hardware or hardware design, requiring only thesoftware description.

Communication Fundamentals

Fundamentally, hardware objects formed on an IC communicate with oneanother using electrical signals. States of electrical signals aredefined to represent data. For instance, an electrical signal having avoltage value above a mid-point between an operating voltage and aground reference voltage can be considered to represent a “1” or HIGHvalue, while voltages below the mid-point voltage can be considered tobe a “0” or LOW value. To ensure signal integrity, only a limitedvoltage range near the ground reference is considered to be a LOW value.Similarly only a limited voltage range near the operating voltage isconsidered a HIGH value. Any voltage in between the limits is anundefined logic state.

In all discussions and figures, a HIGH value indicates that the signalis asserted; a LOW value is a de-asserted value. The active sense of anysignal is not determined by the terms HIGH or LOW.

Multiple signals can be transferred between objects along a paralleldata bus, which allows data to be transmitted simultaneously from afirst point to a second point. The amount of data able to be transferredwithin a particular time is determined by the data width of the bus andthe frequency at which the data state is updated.

Oftentimes, data transmission protocols are used to govern when and howdata is transferred between objects. The protocols are typically notthemselves part of the actual “data” transmission, but rather indicatequalities about the data or synchronize the transmission of the data.For example, a receiving object may indicate when it is busy and cannotreceive data.

FIG. 2 is a timing diagram illustrating a relatively straightforwarddata transfer protocol in which the receiving object indicates itsavailability to receive data by asserting an “accept” signal. Similarly,a sending object indicates whether the data it is sending is valid orinvalid. Invalid data may take any value and is never used.

Referring to FIG. 2, a HIGH accept signal indicates that the receivingobject can receive data. A HIGH valid signal indicates that the data hasa useful value. When the accept and valid signals are both HIGH, a datatransfer occurs between a sending object and a receiving object. A clocksignal is shown in FIG. 2. The clock triggers the valid, accept, anddata signals on its positive edge. The data signals may be a single bit,or may include several bits of data simultaneously sent. Common data buswidths are powers of two, such as 8, 16, 32 or 64.

In the first clock pulse, the positive edge of the clock signalillustrated in FIG. 2, the valid bit is driven HIGH, indicating that thedata signals are a meaningful value. The accept signal is LOW, however,which indicates that the receiving object is not ready to receive thedata. The data signals maintain the value DATA1 until clock edge 4, whenthe accept signal is HIGH. The accept signal was driven HIGH on clockedge 3, indicating that the receiving object is ready to receive. Atclock edge 4, data DATA1 is transferred from the sending object to thereceiving object. An arrow indicates the transfer of data. On clockedges 6, 7, and 9 a transfer occurs because both the valid and acceptsignals are HIGH. On all other clock edges no transfer occurs becauseone or both of valid and accept are LOW. The clock is illustrated inFIG. 2 to facilitate discussion by showing transitions on clock edges.The transfer protocol shown in FIG. 2 is one of the pre-emptive class ofprotocols where the receiving object indicates readiness to receive withno a priori knowledge of the state of the sending object.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a protocol register 50. Theregister is a set of storage elements between an input interface and anoutput interface. The interfaces in FIG. 3 use the same protocol asdetailed in FIG. 2. The input interface uses the in_accept signal toindicate that the storage elements 52 and 54 can be updated. Ifin_accept is HIGH, storage elements 54 store the value on in_data, andstorage elements 52 store the value on in_valid. Note that storageelements 52 and 54 may hold one or more (valid,data) value pairs. Theoutput interface presents the oldest value of storage elements 52 onout_valid and the oldest value of storage elements 54 on out_data. Thevalues on out_valid and out_data are changed to the next eldest(valid,data) value pair when the signal out_accept is HIGH, otherwisethey do not change The storage elements 56 contain the history of theout_accept signal and are used to calculate the next value of signalin_accept.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of another protocol data register 70, whichincludes storage elements 72, 74, 76, and 78. The storage elements 72,74, and 76 correspond to the storage elements 52, 54, and 56 of theprotocol register 50 of FIG. 3, which operates similarly. Discussion ofthese elements is omitted for brevity. The storage element 78 extendsthe register 70 to also store a history of packet identifier values.Register 50 of FIG. 3 stored a history of (valid, data) pairs; theregister 70 of FIG. 4 stores a history of (valid,(data,packet_id))triples. In each triple, a HIGH valid value indicates whether the(data,packet_id) pair value is meaningful. If the valid value is LOW the(data,packet_id) pair cannot be used, or an undefined result may occur.The (data,packet_id) is a pair where the packet_id value indicates theposition of the data value within a larger group of data, or datapacket. Oftentimes packet messages will contain more data than can besimultaneously transferred in parallel, and the message will be brokenup into several “words” of data. The terminology “message packet” and“word” as used here is to be interpreted in its broadest sense, and doesnot connote any particular structure, format, or limitations. Therefore,multiple sets of data, or words, may need to be sent to transfer asingle message packet.

In one embodiment, the packet_id value is a single bit, but could, ofcourse, be any indication of the data's membership in a larger group, ormessage packet. In a particular embodiment, a LOW value of the packet_idindicates that it is the last word in a message packet. All other wordswould have a HIGH value for packet_id. Using this indication, the firstword in a message packet can be determined by detecting a HIGH packet_idvalue that immediately follows a LOW value for the word that precedesthe current word. Alternatively stated, the first HIGH value for thepacket_id that follows a LOW value for a preceding packet_id indicatesthe first word in a message packet. Only the first and last word can bedetermined if using a single bit packet_id.

FIG. 5 illustrates a protocol register 80 that includes combinationallogic. The protocol register 80 of FIG. 5 is similar to the protocolregister 50 of FIG. 3, but includes logic 87 on the output interface. Inthe embodiment illustrated in FIG. 5, the logic 87 is a two-input ORgate. The logic 87 combines the negated out_valid signal from theregister 82 with the out_accept signal to ensure that, even if out_validis LOW, the protocol register 80 always updates to the next eldest(valid,data) pair. Practical uses for such behavior are illustrated indetail below.

FIGS. 6A-6E are block diagrams illustrating a behavior of a series ofprotocol registers 80, assembled into a pipeline 90. The pipeline 90includes nine registers, labeled R1-R9. Each FIG. 6A-6E illustrates adifferent time period, t1-t5. The pipeline 90 uses the out_accept signalfrom the next receiving object (not shown). The next receiving object,as described above, drives the out_accept signal LOW when it is unableto receive data. The out_accept signal in the sequence t1-t5 is alwaysLOW, indicating that the receiving object is not receiving during t1-t5.With reference back to FIG. 5, the storage location 86 computes anin_accept signal, and sends it back to the next register. For example,the in_accept signal of register R1 is the out_accept signal of registerR2 and so on. In this manner, the out_accept signal from the receivingobject is sequentially sent down the pipeline 90.

With reference to FIG. 6A, at time t1 the pipeline 90 holds three validwords of data, D1, D2, and D3. The pipeline 90 holds other data that isconsidered invalid. Valid data is illustrated as shaded boxes in theindividual registers, while invalid data is illustrated as un-shadedboxes. As described above, in each cycle, the pipeline 90 uses anout_accept signal from the next receiving object. The pipeline 90 alsoaccepts another (valid,data) pair from the sending object (not shown).In FIG. 6A (time t1), a fourth valid word of data D4 is being sent tothe pipeline 90.

Therefore, at time t1, there are three words of valid data D1, D2, D3,all stored in separate protocol registers R2, R5 and R8 of the pipeline90. In each cycle that the intermediate out_accept signal is HIGH, the(valid,data) pairs progress to the next register. In cycle t1, logic 87of FIG. 5 allows register R1 to be updated even though out_acceptpresented to R1 is LOW. In cycles t2 and t3, the intermediate out_acceptfor R2 remains HIGH because R2 contains invalid data. The effect oflogic 87 of FIG. 5 is to remove any invalid data words in the pipeline90 and to ensure that each register R1-R9 in the pipeline 90 only stopsprocessing if it is storing meaningful data.

The action of logic 87 is repeated between all registers R1-R9 andallows all of the invalid data between D1, D2 and D3 to be removed bycycle t5. Note that this invalid data was removed even though theout_accept signal presented to R1 was held LOW, indicating that thereceiving object was not accepting data. In what would otherwise bewasted cycles, embodiments of the invention allow the pipeline tocontinue usefully processing data.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a protocol register 100 that combinesaspects of the protocol register 70 (FIG. 4) with the logic 87 of FIG.5. The protocol register 100 includes storage locations 102, 104, 106,and 108 to store the respective signals as described with reference toFIG. 4. A logic element 107 includes an OR function that corresponds tologic 87 of FIG. 5. Of course, the logic element 107 can be formed ofany combination of gates that provide the same functionality.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating an implementation 110 of aprotocol register 100 with a single history, according to embodiments ofthe invention. The protocol register 100 of FIG. 8 includes storageregisters illustrated as edge-triggered clocked, “D” type flip flops.Additionally, some of the flip-flops include an enable input, which onlyallows the input value to transferred to the output on a positive clockedge when the enable is HIGH. The description here uses a mastersynchronous clock (not shown) to explain the operation, but the circuitcan be adapted to run using asynchronous clocks as illustrated in abelow example.

The D-type flip-flops 132, 134 and 138 form a first register set capableof storing one (valid,data,packet_id) value triple. This register set isdenoted the “side register” 130. The D-type flip-flops 122, 124 and 128form a second register set capable of storing another(valid,data,packet_id) value triple. This register set is denoted the“main register” 120. The multiplexers 142, 144 and 148 form a logic setthat allows the main register 120 to be loaded with either a(valid,data,packet_id) triple from the input (if signal in_accept isHIGH), or from the side register 130 if signal in_accept is LOW.

As stated previously, the width of the data value can be any number ofbits.

Logic functions 127 and 137 correspond to the logic 87 of FIG. 5 and thedetailed function is not described here. The register 126 creates a copyof out_accept delayed by one cycle that becomes in_accept (ignoring theaction of logic functions 127 and 137).

The side register 130 is loaded with the input triple when in_accept isHIGH, otherwise the side register retains the previous value triple. Thecombination of the multiplexers 142, 144 and 148 and in_accept andout_accept control the action of the main register 120. Table 1 showsthe operation of the main register. TABLE 1 Main Protocol RegisterRegister out_accept in_accept 120 Description 110 LOW LOW No input Bothregisters STOPPED 120 and 130 are full LOW HIGH No Input Main registerSTOPPING 120 is full and side register 130 is being updated HIGH LOWUpdated Data from side STARTING from side register 130 register moves tomain 130 register 120 HIGH HIGH Updated Input and output NORMAL frommain interface are input directly connected through main register 120

Table 1 shows that there are four states for the protocol register 110:NORMAL, STOPPING, STOPPED and STARTING. The NORMAL state is when theregister is operating normally-transferring the next value triple fromthe input interface directly to the output interface. The STOPPING stateoccurs when the output interface out_accept signal goes LOW, indicatingthat the receiving object cannot receive data, and the input interfacein_accept signal has not yet gone LOW. During the STOPPING state, a newinput value triple may be accepted—this is stored in the side register130. The STOPPED state is when both input and output interfaces do nottransfer any data and both registers 120 and 130 are full of valid data.The STARTING state, is when the output interface transfers the oldestvalue triple, but the input interface has stopped. In the STARTING statethe next eldest value triple, held in the side register 130, istransferred to the main register 120. The state transition diagram forthe protocol register 110 is given in FIG. 9, showing the states and thetransitions of the out_accept signal that causes each state to change.

FIG. 10 shows two possible views of a combination of(valid,data,packet_id) value triples that makes up a packet of length 5.Each value triple is labeled as a word, W1-W5.

The register view shows that the packet consists of both valid andinvalid value triples, with the shaded boxes showing the valid case.When the valid is LOW, the packet_id signal is undefined, as are thedata signals. The packet_id signal is a single bit signal where LOWindicates the last word in the packet. As described above, a transitionof packet_id from LOW to HIGH determines the first word in a packet.

The packet view of FIG. 10 has abstracted the valid signal state by onlydrawing valid words. This is the most convenient view of a multi-wordpacket.

FIG. 11 shows how two equal length packets, in this case each of length5 words, can be combined word-by-word. In a packet view of FIG. 10 theaction is very simple: each word is combined separately to make a newpacket of length 5. The cycle-by-cycle behavior is more complex, and theregister view of FIG. 10 illustrates how the valid signal in each packetaffects the actual operation.

FIG. 11 uses two packets, A and B, each having 5 words and labeledconsecutively as A1-A5 and B1-B5, respectively. In the example of FIG.11, the combination results in a new packet of length 5, each outputword being A1+B1, A2+B2, . . . , A5+B5. FIG. 11 shows the operationduring each cycle from T1 to T10. On cycle T1, both input words A1 andB1 are accepted and the sum A1+B1 output. The output(valid,data,packet_id) value triple in cycle T1 is (1,A1+B1,1). In cycleT2, no addition can take place because B2 is not valid, so A2 waits forB2 until cycle T5 when both A2 and B2 are present and can be added tocreate the output value triple (1,A2+B2,1). In cycles T2, T3 and T4 theoutput value triple is (0,X,X), where X is any undefined value, becausethere was no valid output. In cycle T6, A3 and B3 are available and theoutput value triple is (1,A3+B3,1). In cycle T7, B4 is the input, butmust wait for the A4, creating the invalid output value triple (0,X,X).In cycle T8, A4 and B4 are combined to create the output value triple(1,A4+B4,1). In cycle T9, B5 is on the input, but must wait for A4,creating the invalid output value triple (0,X,X). In cycle T10, both A5and B5 can be accepted to create the final word (1,A5+B5,0).

In FIG. 11, the packet_id field can be a copy of either the packet Aword packet_id field, or copied from the packet B word. The situation issymmetric because the packets must be of equal length in this example.FIG. 11 shows how the invalid words are not destroyed, but re-arrangedin the output packet according to the relative position of the invalidwords in the incoming packets. The time period required to combine thepackets is always at least as long as the longest packet.

FIG. 12 shows how a traditionally designed First-In First-Out (FIFO)element 144 can be transformed into the protocol register 50 of FIG. 3.A traditional FIFO element 144 can be synchronous, using a master clock,or asynchronous where the input interface and output interface areseparately clocked using independent, unrelated clocks. The traditionalFIFO element 144 uses a push signal to push input data into the FIFO.The FIFO generates a full signal when the FIFO is full. The behavior ofasserting the push signal when full is HIGH is undefined because someimplementations discard the input data and some simply ignore the pushsignal under these conditions. Similarly, the traditional FIFO element144 uses a pop signal to output data from the FIFO. An empty signal isprovided when the FIFO is empty. Similar to the push/full problem,asserting the pop signal when the empty signal is HIGH is undefined,because some implementations output undefined values while others ignorethe pop signal under these conditions.

FIG. 12 shows how the FIFO element 144 is transformed into the protocolregister 50 of FIG. 3 by adding logic functions 140, 141, 142 and 143.The in_data and out_data signals correspond exactly to the FIFO element144 input and output data ports. The inverter 140 ensures that out_validis HIGH if the FIFO is not empty, i.e. there is data in the FIFO element144. The inverter 142 ensures that in_accept is HIGH if the FIFO is notfull, i.e. there is still space available in the FIFO element 144. Thetwo-input AND logic functions 141 and 143 ensure that any possibleundefined behaviors of the FIFO element 144 are precluded by removingthe illegal states push=HIGH while FIFO element 144 is full and pop=HIGHwhile the FIFO element 144 is empty.

FIG. 13 illustrates how the protocol register 50 of FIG. 3 or other ofthe example protocol registers described above, or combinations of thesame, are used to create hardware objects. The top example in FIG. 13shows a simple pipeline stage, where there is one input port and oneport to the hardware object 150. The hardware object 150 communicates tothe rest of the system using messages which can be constructed using thepacket binding described in FIG. 10. The content and structure of themessage is not dictated by the packet binding in FIG. 10, and any formof message and content is easily constructed, including, but not limitedto, data, operands, results, commands, instructions, routing directions,message status flags and internal structure identifiers.

All messages are treated asynchronously. For the input port,asynchronous means being able to receive a message at any time—the onlyaction if the input message cannot be processed by the hardware object150 is to block the input. This is achieved by the protocol register 155driving its in_accept signal LOW if any part of a message cannot beconsumed or processed. For the output port, asynchronous means beingable to output a message only when ready to do so—the only action if theoutput message is not ready is for the hardware object 150 to outputnothing. This is achieved by the protocol register 156 driving itsout_valid signal LOW.

Having asynchronous messages controlling the actions of hardware object150 is useful to create hardware objects that directly correspond to thebehaviors and properties of a software object. The circuitry 151 insidethe hardware object 150 can be any combination of circuits because theprotocol registers 155 and 156 isolate the circuitry 151 from anysurrounding circuitry and thus having unanticipated side-effects.Further, using asynchronous messages removes any timing issues createdexternally since messages can be received and output at any time.

Included in FIG. 13 is an alternative implementation of the hardwareobject 150. The relationship between hardware object 152 and hardwareobject 150 will be described below, but it is important to note thatprotocol register 157 and 158 can correspond directly to protocolregisters 155 and 156 respectively. Further, circuitry 153 may beidentical to circuitry 151. Hardware object 152 contains a simple FIFO154 and an extra protocol register 159. The action of FIFO 154 andprotocol register 159 is to buffer and delay any input messages. In asynchronous system, this delay would result in a change of latency inoperation of hardware object 152 when compared to hardware object 150,but would have no effect on throughput or function. In an asynchronoussystem there is no strict notion of time and latency, and so hardwareobject 152 and hardware object 150 have identical behaviors.

The internal protocol register 159 in FIG. 13 shows that protocolregisters can have useful functions within a hardware object, and notjust at the boundaries. The preferred embodiments of the invention useprotocol registers exclusively whenever it is beneficial to use such aregister.

FIG. 14 shows a simple join and simple fork function, each withdifferent combinations of protocol registers.

The join function 160 operates on whole messages which correspond to thepacket binding of FIG. 10. A message is described in detail in thedescription of FIG. 13. A join function 160 in its simplest form has twoinput ports 161 and 162, one output port 168 and synchronizes messagesreceived on the two input ports 161 and 162. The synchronization isperformed by only starting the output message when both input ports 161and 162 have the first word of a message, and by only completing whenboth input interfaces 161 and 162 have received the last word of themessages that started the synchronization process.

The fork function 163 operates on whole messages which correspond to thepacket binding of FIG. 10. A message is described in detail in thedescription of FIG. 13. A fork function 163 in its simplest form has twooutput ports 165 and 166, one input port 164 and duplicates an inputmessage received on the input port 164 to both the output ports 165 and166. The duplicating process is performed by only starting the outputmessage when the input port 164 has the first word of a message, and byonly completing when both output interfaces 165 and 166 have sent thelast word of the message that started the process.

A protocol register 50 of FIG. 3 is shown on FIG. 14 as a filledrectangle. As an example, rectangle 167 represents a protocol register.FIG. 14 shows all equivalent topologies that create the same fork andjoin functions—in effect placing the protocol registers does not changethe function. As explained in detail in the description of FIG. 13,inserting protocol registers in an asynchronous system does not affecttiming or function.

The different topologies in FIG. 14 show that the decision to insert aprotocol register can be made arbitrarily. In preferred embodiments ofthe invention, the registers are placed on an IC so as to make everyprotocol register have approximately equal electrical loading and thussimilar timing characteristics. By enforcing this rule, every protocolregister operates essentially identically. If hardware objects areconstructed using protocol registers as ports as shown in FIG. 13, theinput and output ports of the hardware object will have identicalfunction and electrical performance, independent of which protocolregisters on the IC were selected to implement the hardware object. Thisallows hardware objects to be re-locatable or re-instanced with no sideeffects, an important feature for hardware modeling a software objectwhose instances are assumed to behave identically at any time in anyplace.

FIG. 15 shows how the protocol register implementation 110 in FIG. 8 canbe extended to create a protocol register that uses asynchronous clocks,clk1 and clk2, for the input and output interfaces respectively withoutrepeating or losing a (valid,data,packet_id) value triple. The D-typeflip-flops 171, 172, 173 and 174 perform a synchronization functionwhereby a transition into the synchronizer could create a meta-stableinput voltage and the action of the synchronizer is to (randomly)resolve that meta-stable voltage into a valid HIGH or LOW voltage. Theresolution of the synchronizers can be random because the originaltransition will remain stable over at least two cycles and so the truelogic value will always be sampled correctly on the next cycle after themeta-stable event. In many systems more than two D-type flip-flops (171,172 or 173, 174) can be cascaded to reduce the probability of ameta-stable output voltage, or particular synchronizer elements can beused in place of the D-type flip-flop 171, 172, 173 and 174.

FIG. 15 shows that the valid and accept signals are explicitlysynchronized. The in_data and in_packet_id signals are sampledsynchronously and the action of the logic in FIG. 15 ensures that theout_data and out_packet_id signals do not change when out_valid andout_accept are HIGH and a transfer is made to the receiving protocolregister (not shown).

The valid and accept logic of FIG. 15 creates a latch, whereby a logicHIGH value is passed through one of the synchronizers and cannot bereset LOW until the corresponding HIGH value in the other synchronizeris received.

In the reset state, the critical nodes 175 and 176 are LOW and 177 and178 are HIGH. This is the quiescent state of the circuit. In thequiescent state, the primary outputs out_valid is LOW and in_accept isHIGH, that is the register is empty and ready to start. Havingout_valid=LOW means that the state of out_accept is irrelevant in thequiescent state. The next state can only occur when in_valid goes HIGH,thus inputting a (valid,data,packet_id) value triple. A state register179 ensures that node 177 will go LOW along with in_accept on the nextcycle. This ensures that no more input data can be accepted. The LOWvalue of node 177 is synchronized using flip-flops 171 and 172,eventually resulting in a LOW on node 178. With both nodes 176 and 178LOW, out_valid is driven HIGH. A state register 180 records the timewhen a transfer occurs, that is, when out_valid and out_accept are bothHIGH. State register 180 ensures that node 176 will go HIGH on the nextcycle following a transfer. Having node 176 HIGH forces out_valid LOW sothat the transfer of data is not repeated. The HIGH value on node 176 issynchronized using flip-flops 173 and 174, eventually resulting in aHIGH value on node 175.

The state where the critical nodes 175 and 176 are HIGH and 177 and 178are LOW is a rest state where a transfer has completed. In the reststate, having node 175 HIGH starts a chain of events whereby node 177,178, 176 and 175 eventually all return their respective quiescent statesof LOW, LOW, HIGH and HIGH. At this point a new transfer can be startedwhen in_valid goes HIGH.

FIG. 16 is a timing diagram showing how different clock frequencies canbe constructed from a master clock. In FIG. 16 two “asynchronous”frequencies are generated, in_clk and out_clk. The frequencies arealways lower than master_clk, and do not necessarily have the samemark-space or even coincident clock edges. In FIG. 16, there are 4positive clock edges on each of in_clk and out_clk for every 15 positiveclock edges of master_clk (if the sequence is assumed to repeat). Thismeans that the frequency of both in_clk and out_clk are both 4/15 thefrequency of the master_clk, but the different placement of the edgesbetween in_clk and out_clk indicate that both clocks are effectivelyasynchronous to each other.

FIG. 16 shows that clocks that are essentially asynchronous canrelatively easily be created from a master synchronous clock, andfurther, with arbitrary frequency division ratios for each output clock.In FIG. 16 the in_clken is an enable signal (synchronous to master_clk)that is sampled on the negative edge of master_clk and then used as amask for an AND function with master_clk to create the in_clk. Similarlythe out_clken is an enable signal (synchronous to master_clk) that issampled on the negative edge of master_clk and then used as a mask foran AND function with master_clk to create the out_clk. The clockingschema described in FIG. 16 is known as pseudo-asynchronous clocking.

FIG. 17 shows how the protocol register implementation 110 in FIG. 8 canbe extended to create a protocol register that uses apseudo-asynchronous IN_CLK and OUT_CLK for the input and outputinterfaces respectively without repeating or losing a(valid,data,packet_id) value triple. The pseudo-asynchronous IN_CLK andOUT_CLK are generated from a MASTER_CLK, in_clken and out_clken asdescribed in FIG. 16. The logic of FIG. 8 is replicated in the shadedregion denoted IN_CLK and creates a protocol register 196. All D-typeflip-flops in the shaded region are clocked using IN_CLK. The additionallogic in the un-shaded region denoted by MASTER_CLK serves to ensurethat the protocol is re-formatted so that the output interface shown inthe shaded region denoted by OUT_CLK is correctly formed and aligned tothe OUT_CLK signal. The D-type flip-flop 190 is clocked using theMASTER_CLK signal.

The logic in the un-shaded region of FIG. 17 is arranged in a manner toensure that the operation is identical to the implementation in FIG. 8if IN_CLK and OUT_CLK are identical, even at the fastest rate wherein_clken and out_clken are HIGH permanently. In this case the operationof the logic is clear. Logic gate 191 always outputs a LOW value, asdoes the D-type flip-flop 190. Logic gates 192, 193 and 194 aretherefore in the pass mode and the state of out_accept and out_valid aredirectly controlled by the protocol register 196.

For the other case where the in_clken and out_clken are not permanentlyHIGH in FIG. 17, the gates in the un-shaded region are controlled sothat the out_valid and the output of logic gate 193 (which is theout_accept for the protocol register 196 clocked by IN_CLK) are in thecorrect state: logic gate 192 removes the possibility of duplicatingout_valid when the next in_clken has not yet been asserted by drivingout_valid LOW, and logic gate 193 ensures that the “out_accept” isextended (and not missed) until the next assertion of in_clken bydriving the output of gate 193 HIGH.

Hardware Objects

FIG. 18 illustrates a functional diagram of a hardware object. Asdescribed above, hardware objects include circuitry bounded by a numberof protocol registers. The protocol registers can be the same registersas described above. The presence of registers does not affect the logicflow of the circuitry at all, but rather are used to balance electricalloading by segmenting long signal wires. Each hardware object iscompletely encapsulated and is not affected by the state of any otherobject. The hardware objects communicate with one another by sendingmessages or message packets. The packets can contain instructions ordata, or both. In some embodiments, an internal state of a hardwareobject may only be interrogated or altered by using messages. Once ahardware object receives instructions and appropriate data, thereceiving hardware object can operate on the data to produce output. Theoutput can then be sent to another object.

In the described development system, hardware objects are generallymedium-grained, i.e., not the most simple function, such as an AND gate,but also not an overly complex function, which would tend to destroy theuniversal nature of the collection of hardware objects. Some examples ofmedium-grained objects include 10 structures, micro-processors, RAM, andFinite State Machines (FSM). Some objects are extremely general purpose;others have a fixed functionality. Objects can have sub-functionalitythat can be inherited, for example a Multiply Accumulate (MAC) objectcan act as an adder or a multiplier in some applications.

A hardware object 300 includes a set of particularized central circuitry304, which is typically “bounded” by at least one input protocolregister 310 and an output protocol register 310. In FIG. 18, multipleprotocol registers 310 are present. In practice, because the existenceand/or placement of protocol registers 310 does not affect circuitoperation, it is possible to have a hardware object that has no protocolregisters without destroying the object's function or ability tooperate. Conversely, a hardware object 300 may include dozens ofregisters, both inside the central circuitry 304 and at the boundary.The ability to place a protocol register 310 anywhere can be used toeliminate long signal wires to be formed within a chip by choosingphysical locations that balance resistive and capacitive loading. Theprotocol registers 310 may differ from one another somewhat, in thatsome registers may be minimal while other registers may have additionalfeatures or capabilities. Typically, protocol registers would bedifferentiated by the number of data signals they can simultaneouslytransfer. Example systems may include several types of protocolregisters of varying types.

Hardware objects 300 may stand alone, but it is much more useful toassociate several hardware objects together. FIG. 19 illustrates ninehardware objects 300, labeled U1-U9. Two of the hardware objects 300, U4and U7, are independent and not associated in this example with ahardware object. Multiple hardware objects 300 can be associated tocreate other hardware objects having more functionality than is capable,or preferred, by individual hardware objects alone. As illustrated inFIG. 19, hardware objects U1, U2, U3 and U5 are associated with oneanother to create a hardware object 320. The hardware object 320 couldhave been simply formed as a specific stand-alone circuit, with internalcommunication between its component pieces. However, using embodimentsof the invention, individual hardware objects do not lose theirgenerality simply because they are associated with other components. Onthe contrary, building more powerful hardware objects from collectionsof smaller hardware objects is a distinct advantage of using theinventive concepts contained herein.

FIG. 19 also illustrates another hardware object 330 formed byassociating the hardware objects U5, U6, U8, and U9. From a functionalstandpoint, it does not matter that U5 is a member of both hardwareobjects 320 and 330. In some cases the shared functionality comes fromhaving hardware object U5 comprised of separable hardware and each ofthe component functions of hardware object 320 and hardware object 330operating on independent hardware. In another case, the componentfunctions of hardware object 320 and hardware object 330 run on sharedhardware within hardware object U5. Time-sharing functionality must bepresent in hardware object 320 and hardware object 330 to ensure thatthe hardware can be shared with any appropriate priority or performancecriteria.

FIGS. 20A-20C illustrate example hardware objects 300, each of which hasa different central circuitry 304. FIG. 20A illustrates a hardwareobject 300 that includes a multiply function in its central circuitry304. The multiply function may be implemented by a hardware multiplieror by other methods as is well known in the art. The protocol registers310 provide a uniform data interface between the hardware object 300 andother objects. FIG. 20B illustrates a hardware object 300 that includesa memory and a shifter in its central circuitry 304. In this example,the memory and shifter communicate with one another directly, withoutpassing through a protocol register 310. Communication within thecentral circuitry 304 may use internal protocol registers 310 inaddition to protocol registers used at the boundaries of the hardwareobjects. Or other forms of communication can be used within the centralcircuitry 304. For instance, as illustrated in FIG. 20B, the memory andshifter may communicate directly to one another using a direct busprotocol. Additionally, the memory and shifter could communicate througha serial line, if desired. For purposes of assembling hardware objectsand developing systems that can be implemented, it is relativelyunimportant how components within the central circuitry 304 of anyhardware object 300 communicate with one another. The hardware object300 of FIG. 20B also includes protocol registers 310, to facilitatecommunication between objects.

FIG. 20C illustrates an additional example of a hardware object 300having yet other components in the central circuitry 304. In thisexample, a memory and state machine are additionally coupled to aregister file and an Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU). This exampleillustrates that not all components of the central circuitry 304 need tocommunicate with one another directly, and that communication using anymethods or protocols can be integrated within the particular hardwareobjects 300 themselves. In almost all cases, however, including protocolregisters 310 at the “edges” of the central circuitry 304 facilitateseasy aggregation of hardware objects to create very powerful and complexobjects.

FIG. 21 illustrates that hardware objects do not have to be bounded bythe same boundaries as other hardware objects. In FIG. 21, five hardwareobjects are illustrated. Four hardware objects fixed on the IC substrateare 342, 344, 346, and 348. An object 350 is made from elements of theobjects 342, 344, and 346. The object 350 includes the complete objects342 and 346, but only includes a portion of the object 344.Specifically, the object 350 uses the memory and only one of the ALUs ofthe central circuitry 304 of the hardware object 344. Note that theobject 350 is still bounded by protocol registers 310, because thecentral circuitry 304 of the hardware object 344 already utilized theminternally. In this instance, the object 350 can use the protocolregister 310 that was inside the central circuitry 304 of the hardwareobject 344. The remaining ALU from object 344 and the whole of object348 are unallocated here, but can be used to form another hardwareobject.

Objects communicate to one another by sending asynchronous messages,which can be implemented using message packets in preferred embodimentsof the invention, to one another. The message packets do not restrictthe content or structure of the message, which may include data,instructions, addresses, and/or information about the message packetsthemselves. FIG. 22 illustrates two hardware objects 360, 370 thatcommunicate with one another using messages between their respectiveprotocol registers 310. Embodiments of the invention do not dictate anyparticular message format or require that messages adhere to any certainprotocol. Of course, as a system is being designed an understandingbetween the sender and receiver of message structure must be formed sothat the sender and the receiver can interpret the messages correctly.

An example message 380, containing 10 words, is also illustrated in FIG.22. This example message 380 begins with a routing command, which couldbe a destination address or a fixed command such as “ROUTE LEFT”. When asystem of hardware objects is linked and fixed on a re-configurablechip, as described below, each hardware object on the IC substrate maybe assigned a unique address. Messages can be directed based on theunique address, or based on steering commands, for example. After therouting information, the message 380 includes flags that can be used toidentify the type of information contained in the message or even thehigher-level structure of the message. Because messages according to theprotocol sent over the protocol registers 310 can represent severaldifferent types, flags can be used to indicate which types are used. Theflags may indicate the format of the message, for example containingdata only, containing instructions, etc. The example message 380 of FIG.22 further includes a series of instructions and operands and variousflags that will be used by the receiving object 370. In some instances,the receiving object may simply pass some or all of the instructions andoperands received from a sending object to another object. Pass-throughmessages are used where a first object sends a message to another objectthat is not directly connected to the first object.

FIG. 23 illustrates a “messaging fork” object 400, which includes anumber of elementary objects 402, 404, 406, 408, and 410. A singledata-stream A is input to the object 400, and two outputs, A1 and A2,are generated. The fork can operate on any data or operands included inthe data-stream A. Within the fork primitive object 402, the messagestream A is split into two component streams A1 and A2. In its mostbasic form, the fork object 402 simply duplicates data from thedata-stream A to make two streams A1 and A2. In other embodiments, thefork object 402 can perform operations on the incoming stream beforeparsing it into component streams. For instance, the fork object 402 mayaccept a mixed number stream in the data-stream A and split onlyintegers into stream A1 and floating point numbers into stream A2. Otherembodiments of fork objects 400 can simply split streams withoutoperating on them, for example all addressed messages within a specifiedrange can go into output stream A2 and all other messages into outputstream A1. In this manner, a large volume of incoming data can be splitacross a number of separate parallel processes. Other types of forksinclude steering forks which steer packets in a fixed direction unless arouting command in the message packet is encountered, at which point thesteering fork obeys the routing command. Although illustrated as onlycreating two resultant data streams A1, and A2, multiple fork objectscan be linked to generate any number of resultant streams.

FIG. 23 also shows that objects 404 and 406 can operate on the messagestream A2 to create very complex fork functionalities. Similarly,objects 408 and 410 can operate on message stream A1 to create furtherfunctionalities. The importance of the structure of object 400, beingformed of the five objects 402, 404, 406, 408 and 410, is that themessage streams A1 and A2 are operated upon in parallel. For example, ifone of the streams is temporarily blocked, the other stream continuesprocessing.

FIG. 23 does not limit the length of any of the streams: in particularit could be essential to make output streams B1 and B2 different lengthseven though they were both invoked by an input message of the samelength in this example.

FIG. 24 illustrates a “joining” object 420, which accepts two inputstreams and joins them as a unitary stream. Similar to the fork objectdescribed in FIG. 23, the join object 420 can take almost any formnecessary to implement a desired function. A common join function issynchronizing on the two input messages. In this case both inputmessages must be present before any output stream starts to generate,and once started, the synchronization process cannot complete until theentirety of each input message has been received. Another commonfunction is the “alternate join” function, which copies the first inputmessage to arrive to the output. Once an input message is accepted,another message on the other input waits for the copy to complete.Generally the “alternate join” function arbitrates fairly according to aleast-recently-used policy, but other variants that have fixed inputpriority or act on priority encoded in the input messages are commonlyused. The join function, and its analog the fork function, is extremelyuseful in an asynchronous compute system because the function can beused to create a computation order between the outputs of parallelprocesses.

FIG. 24 shows that complex joining functions can be created by combininghardware objects together. The feedback terms 429 and 430 betweenobjects 422 and 424 allows very complex combinations of input messagestreams 431 and 432 to be implemented. Similarly object 428 can be usedto post-process the output of the basic join object 426, making thefinal join object 420 very much more complex than the internal basicjoin object 426. Similar to FIG. 23, the essential quality of the joinobject 420 is that its component pieces operate independently.

Having hardware objects that are easily combined, operate independentlyand communicate using asynchronous messages as described in FIGS. 21, 23and 24 is not necessarily enough to guarantee maximum systemperformance. Further, using one of the variant protocol registers asdescribed above ensures that every component object within a system willcontinue to process data until it is completely stopped (when it cannotoutput and is full of valid data).

The above-described hardware objects can be formed in silicon or onanother substrate in a straightforward fashion. FIG. 25 illustrates anexample chip 450 having a number of physically formed instances ofhardware objects 454 and 455. The objects are interconnected by datalines linked between protocol registers, which can have the propertiesof other protocol registers described above. Input and output pins 458provide an interface to the chip 450. Standard communication protocols,such as USB or Firewire could be connected to the chip 450 by includingparticularized hardware objects 454 programmed to perform the particularconnection protocols.

The particular mix of objects 454 and 455 formed on the chip 450 canvary depending on the type of application served by the chip 450.However, modern technologies can support very large numbers of physicalobjects, thus making the applicability wide-ranging. Because thehardware objects on the hardware chip 450 can be relatively easilyconfigured and re-configured, the chip 450 can be referred to as aRe-configurable Standard Part, or RSP. The total number of physicalhardware object instances implemented on the RSP may be on the order of100-100,000 or more. The total number of different physical hardwareobjects (in this example only two) will be much fewer, for example onthe order of 10. Of course, any number of types or total number ofhardware objects can be implemented on the RSP without deviating fromthe inventive concepts described herein.

By selecting which hardware objects are made on a base RSP, particularRSPs can be optimized for particular markets. A common example istrading-off on-chip memory capacity for computation hardware. Forexample, an RSP having a multitude of compute physical hardware objectssuch as adders, shifters and multipliers, could be useful in the DSP(Digital Signal Processing) market. In another case, having more on-chipmemory would be useful in network routing markets, where storing largedata-sets and buffering network packets is more important than puremathematical computation.

Software Objects

Once the hardware objects are defined, embodiments of the inventionallow systems to be built by developing a description of interconnectedhardware objects. Ultimately, this description is loaded onto an RSP,described above, and a fully programmed, very specific system isproduced, using a very general architecture. Once programmed, the RSPsystem is complete and ready for operation.

To create the system of interconnected hardware objects, softwaredescriptions of the hardware object definitions are stored in an objectlibrary. An example library is illustrated in FIG. 26. Illustrated inthat figure is a collection of library objects, A, B, C, and D. Thelibrary objects are pre-defined collections of primitive objectdescriptions. The existence of the unique messaging protocols andencapsulation of each hardware object as described above enablessoftware object descriptions of the hardware objects to be alreadybuilt_in to the hardware object.

Essential properties of a software object that are embodied in theinvention include independent execution, asynchronous messaging betweenobjects, encapsulation and insensitivity to context.

Independent execution is a critical quality that removes software fromthe operation of the underlying hardware it runs on, allowing manydifferent software architectures to be effectively implemented with nohardware restrictions.

Asynchronous messaging is important because it allows the softwaredescription to be independent of all of the traditional timing issues inhardware design. Further, it forces any real-time software functionalityto be explicitly defined in the software, rather than having “real-time”defined by a number of processor cycles.

Encapsulation and insensitivity to context allow the software objects tohave identical functionality and performance independent of the physicallocation of the hardware implementation on an IC and independent of theparticular IC type. Once a hardware object can be built that:

-   -   has built-in encapsulation,    -   is insensitive to context,    -   operates independently,    -   communicates asynchronously,    -   is genuinely re-locatable,    -   can be any size,    -   can be any complexity,        it is relatively easy to build hardware object inheritance,        polymorphism and modularity by simply using a software        description that supports Object Oriented Programming (OOP).        Thus the hardware objects have software descriptions that        rigidly adhere to the OOP principals.

There is no functional difference between an object in a hardware viewand in a software view. All hardware objects can be considered purely asinstantiations of the Object Library software primitives. All softwareobjects can be considered as pure descriptions of fully encapsulatedhardware objects. In embodiments of the invention, there is a full,provable, one-to-one mapping between the hardware and software views.The hardware/software dichotomy in the described development system is atrue bottom-up construction based on rules and relations of the protocolregisters and the base hardware objects. All the software behaviors andall the hardware specific information of the hardware objects arecontained within the object definition-they are stored centrally and canbe inherited. This allows new objects to be created, since all thehardware rules and relations can be inherited from the child instances.

FIG. 26 illustrates that object A is made of four interconnectedprimitive objects, three of which being primitive type #1 and one ofwhich being type #2. Once object A is placed in the library, the objectitself is available to be used by further objects. For example, objectB, similar to object A, is also shown as a collection of other primitiveobjects, while object D is a collection of objects A and B, only, anddoes not directly instance any primitive objects. These hierarchicalrelationships preserve all the OOP properties, such as inheritance forexample. Software objects stored in the library need not be limited toprimitive objects, however. This is illustrated in object C'sdefinition, which includes another library object B along with someadditional interconnected primitive objects.

Software object hierarchy is also illustrated in FIG. 27, which shows anumber of primitive objects collected hierarchically into a softwareobject 460. The software object 462 is simply a single primitive object,while software objects 464 and 466 are made from two and three primitiveobjects, respectively.

New software objects for the library can be created by defining a newlevel of hierarchy and abstraction. Since all of the hardware specificrules and relations are inherited from the children, the hardwareinformation for the new software object is automatically created. Inpractice, the Object Library can be developed in C++, Java, or any otheranother OOP Language.

System Development

An example software model of a complete system is illustrated in FIG.28. That figure illustrates an MPEG2 decoder object 470 assembled from acollection of hardware primitives and pre-defined software objects froma video decoder portion of an object library. The video decoder library480 includes the individual primitive objects P1-P7, along with a motionobject 472 and a decompress object 476. The motion object 472 is createdfrom two primitives P3 and P5, while the decompress object 474 iscreated from three primitives, P2, P4, and P6. The P6 primitive is ainverse Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT⁻¹) primitive object. PrimitivesP1 and P7 are input/output primitive objects. Assembling the decoder 470also includes using an external frame store 476, which in someembodiments can be effected using off-chip memory. Further details aregiven below in reference to the implementation of the decoder.

The software model in FIG. 28 is a true OOP description of the system:the objects run independently and the code is simply a collection ofobject instances. Once a system is described using such a softwaremodel, it is both executable as a piece of software and has thestructural information required to map the model efficiently ontohardware.

Once a software system that is a collection of software and, ultimately,hardware objects is created, the system is mapped onto an RSP 450 (FIG.25) to make a hardware product. In operation, when the system designerdesigns the system model, he or she is using properties directly fromthe Object Library, which, in turn, were generated directly fromproperties of the underlying physical hardware objects. Therefore, whenthe system designer describes the desired system, the properties of thedesired system will already have the properties of the underlyingphysical hardware objects built_in. This direct correspondence from thedesired system to the underlying physical hardware objects makes mappingonto the RSP a relatively simple assignment process.

An example mapping system is illustrated in FIG. 29, which illustratesthe MPEG2 decoder object 470 of FIG. 28 being mapped onto the RSP 450 ofFIG. 25 to yield system chip 480 programmed to be an MPEG2 decoder. Eachof the primitive objects P1-P7 of the decoder object 470 is assigned toone of the hardware objects 454 and 455 of the RSP 450. The propertiesof the underlying physical hardware objects 454 and 455 when configuredto be the primitive objects P1-P9 are the same properties used todevelop the decoder 470 from the object library 480 (FIG. 28). Object P1of the decoder 470 and the programmed physical hardware object 454labeled “1” on RSP 450 are both input objects, accepting input messagesto the system. Similarly, the object P7 and the programmed physicalobject 455 labeled “7” is an output object, which delivers the decodedvideo.

The primitive objects P2, P4 and P6 comprising the decompress object 474are directly mapped to three physical hardware objects labeled “2”, “4”and “6” respectively on the RSP 450. The hierarchical properties of thedecompress object 474 is maintained on the RSP 450, shown as the shadedregion 474. Similarly, the primitive objects P3 and P5 comprising themotion object 472 is directly mapped to two physical hardware objectslabeled “3” and “5” respectively. The hierarchical properties of themotion object 472 is maintained on the RSP 450, shown in the shadedregion 472.

The frame store 476 of FIG. 28 is this example was marked as beingoff-chip in the software model, and so is not mapped on the RSP 450,creating instead the interface signals marked “to/from frame store”.

Not all the physical hardware objects 454 and 455 on the RSP 450 areused for every system implementation. Indeed, it is likely that manyphysical hardware objects will not be used. The unused physical hardwareobjects may be turned off, or may be set to run at extremely low clockrates to save power.

As described above, the hardware objects inherently contain the softwareobject description, function and properties. Additionally, the hardwareobject has additional property requirements, specifically: aconfiguration binary program that makes the hardware perform the desiredfunction; the amount of hardware resource needed; and the connectionrules that govern how the hardware is connected. In one embodiment ofthe invention, there is only one version of the object with one possibleunderlying physical hardware object topology. In other embodiments,there are many different topologies and mixes of underlying physicalhardware objects that can be programmed (using the configuration binaryattached to the object) to create an object. In the latter case, theobject is said to have different incarnations.

Each incarnation of an object has exactly the same software objectbuilt-in, but each has different possible hardware topologies and mixeswhich then creates different performance and resource utilization whichcan be traded by the user choosing particular incarnations.

FIG. 30 illustrates the additional information that can be attached toone software object incarnation. A software object 490 is illustrated,which could be any type of object description, for example the decoder470 of FIG. 28. As the software object 490 is developed, a physicalhardware object topology is chosen, and a list of connection rules aregenerated. The connection rules specify the maximum and minimum delaysthat the topology can tolerate to meet a specific performance target,and must be met when the primitive objects are mapped directly onto thehardware of the RSP 450. As described with reference to the hardwareobjects above, there is a practical limit to the number of protocolregisters that can be associated with each hardware object. Therefore,there is a corresponding limit to the level of interconnection for eachhardware object. In other words, it is likely impossible that everyhardware object on an RSP 450 is directly connected to every otherhardware object used in the software object. Therefore, the list ofconnection rules 492 is used to ensure that objects that must be nearone another (for example to meet performance requirements) can be, andobjects that need not be directly connected do not have to be soconnected. Referring to the list of connection rules 492 of FIG. 30, itshows that the link between A.d and A.d (two hardware objects' port “d”)must be directly connected, i.e., have a connection length of exactly 1hop. Other objects need not be so directly interconnected, and may beseparated by up to 3, or up to 7 connections, respectively. In practice,if hardware objects that are not directly connected need to communicatewith one another, they send a message with an address or routingcommands to the desired hardware object.

A resource list 494 indicates how many and what type of the physicalhardware objects on the RSP 450 form the topology of the software objectincarnation. When the system is being designed, a design rules checkercan be used that tracks available resources on an RSP 450, and preventsthe system designer from exceeding in the design the number of resourcesthat are physically available.

Both the connection rules 492 and the resource list 494 can easily beinferred from child primitives in a software object using inheritance.Only primitive objects have a defined topology.

A binaries list 496 is a list of micro-code or microinstructions that isloaded into instruction memory or configuration registers in thephysical hardware object, and controls how the particular physicalhardware object should operate. For instance, the micro-code can bestored in instruction order so that, when the hardware object isinitiated, the first instruction read is the desired first instructionfor the hardware object to perform.

Because the system software object model is isomorphic with the hardwareobjects on the RSP 450, the configured RSP 450 will operate exactly assimulated in the system model.

In practice, the binaries list 496 will typically be stored in some typeof memory, be it EEPROM, flash, or other type of ROM, or in another typeof memory located either on or off the RSP 450. When the RSP is powered,an initialization process first initializes all of the hardware objectsto an initial state. One physical hardware object may be configured onreset to become a function that will automatically load initialinstructions. The initial instructions are then executed to cause thetop-level binaries list 496 to be loaded into the RSP 450. The binarieslist can be distributed to the individual hardware objects using themessage packet protocol described above. Once the first part of thebinaries are loaded into their individual objects, the objects can startto operate, waiting for first input data.

A flowchart explaining the processes used to create a fully programmedsystem is illustrated in FIG. 31. A flow 500 begins by partitioning theproblem into its component parts in a process 510. Next, library objectsare imported into the design system in a process 520. As the design isbeing developed, the designer determines if there are the correctsoftware objects present in the library in a decision 530. If necessaryobjects are not present, for example the object does not yet exist or anew performance incarnation is needed, the designer can create them in aprocess 532 and store the newly created objects in the library. Afterthe design is complete and all the necessary objects are included in thelibrary the design is tested in a process 540. The design is checked ina process 550. If the design does not pass the design test, for examplethe connection rules cannot be met, the flow 500 loops back and newobject incarnations can be created and the design tested. Once thedesign is complete, a list of hardware constraints from the RSP 450 ismatched with the design features to be mapped onto the programmed RSP ina process 560, as described above.

Embodiments of this invention are particularly well suited for high datathroughput applications, because the collection of hardware objects onthe RSP 450 run asynchronously with massive parallelism. This createsincredible potential for very large systems that manipulate largeamounts of data using complex algorithms. Some particularly well suitedpotential applications include motion estimation for video encoding,high-definition video encoding and processing, raster algorithms forlaser writers, accelerators for high-speed wireless networks,ultra-secure encryption, storage area networks, HDTV video scaling, FECfor 802.13 and 802.11g and other wireless protocols, SNORT intrusiondetection, and temporal video interpolation for display rate changes,for instance.

A major aspect of embodiments of the invention is completeness, with aninherent ability to both build high-performance integrated circuits andto change them using only software. Completeness means that thesoftware-hardware co-design problem is eliminated by only using asoftware description.

Using embodiments of the invention, software and hardware views, andtheir implementation, are one and the same. This allows the user of thedevelopment system to write programs using standard tools and languagesand then to directly implement them in hardware, with all its attendantperformance benefits.

Users of embodiments of the invention do not need to have any hardwareknowledge or expertise. Such a user simply writes or manipulatessoftware to create a system, which can be as complex as veryhigh-performance systems that only a custom IC can provide today. Oncethe system is defined in software, the software definition is used toconfigure a general purpose IC that is created with a collection ofpre-existing physical hardware objects. The combination of a uniquegeneral-purpose chip, the RSP, coupled with a software library ofobjects allows the user to quickly design and test a system that couldnot be designed nearly as easily, or with as much performance, usingpresent day tools.

Example Implementation

FIGS. 32, 33, 34 and 35 illustrate an example of how a relativelycomplex object can be built using simple objects. The example object isone which convolves two streams together to create a filtered version ofthe two streams. Convolution in the time domain is equivalent tomultiplication in the frequency domain, and is used in applicationswhere multiple filters are cascaded, such as in wireless communicationsystems. The goal of the design is to create the convolution object sothat more than one hardware multiplier can be kept busy without havingglobal connections which broadcast the same value to many componentobjects at the same time.

FIG. 32 shows a convolution primitive object. There are six protocolregisters forming three input ports (labeled u_(i), w_(i) and y_(i)) andthree output ports (labeled w_(i+1), u_(i+1) and y_(i+1)). The circuitryin the hardware object is one hardware multiplier and one adder. Theconnections in the hardware object are configured to perform thefollowing operations:w _(i+1) =w _(i)u _(i+1) =u _(i)y _(i+1) =u _(i) *w _(i) +y _(i)

FIG. 32 also shows a schematic view of the object which illustrates theinput and output ports and the primitive labeled as “CP”.

FIG. 33 shows pseudo-code for convolution primitive object of FIG. 32.The ports are declared as being INPORT or OUTPORT connections of typeCHANNEL. The local variables ui, wi and yi are declared as being typeinteger. The first code line in the procedure is a join function ofchannel a and channel b. The join function does not complete until bothchannels a and b have valid inputs. The value received on channel a isassigned to the variable ui and the value received on channel b isassigned to the variable wi. The next two lines copy ui and w_(i) to theoutput channels d and e respectively. The line “c→yi” is equivalent toanother join function with the output of the multiply hardware, andcould have been incorporated in the first line by using“join(a→ui,b→wi,c→yi)”, but separating the two as shown in FIG. 33allows the multiply hardware to proceed even if the input on channel chas not yet occurred. The final line indicates the value ui*wi+yi beingoutput on channel f.

FIG. 34 shows the other primitive object used in this example. There arefive (of the six available) protocol registers forming two input ports(labeled u_(i) and w_(i)) and three output ports (labeled w_(i+1),u_(i+1) and y_(i+1)). The circuitry in the hardware object is just onehardware multiplier. The connections in the hardware object areconfigured to perform the following operations:w _(i+1) =w _(i)u _(i+1) =u _(i)y _(i+1) =u _(i) *w _(i)

FIG. 34 also shows a schematic view of the object which illustrates theinput and output ports and the primitive labeled as “X”, shorthand for“multiply”.

FIG. 35 shows how the two primitive objects in FIGS. 32 and 34 arecombined in a topology to create the convolution object. Note that allof the connections remain point-point which keeps the wiring simple andallows the performance to be dictated by the primitive objects, not bythe connections of the global wiring.

The function of the convolution object is given by the equation:${y(j)} = {{\sum\limits_{k = 0}^{j}{{u(k)}{w\left( {j - k} \right)}\quad 0}} \leq j < 7}$

In the FIG. 35 example it is assumed that w(i) and u(i) are zero for i>3for simplicity, but in a real streaming system more input values thanthe first four can be used. If we expand 20 the series, each of theoutput terms is given by the following sets of equations:y(0)=u(0)*w(0)y(1)=u(0)*w(1)+u(1)*w(0)y(2)=u(0)*w(2)+u(1)*w(1)+u(2)*w(0)y(3)=u(0)*w(3)+u(1)*w(2)+u(2)*w(1)+u (3)*w(0)y(4)=u(1)*w(3)+u(2)*w(2)+u(3)*w(1)y(5)=u(2)*w(3)+u(3)*w(2)y(6)=u(3)*w(3)

To show that the topology of FIG. 35 generates these terms correctly,first examine the output y(0). The output y(0) is created by the y_(i+1)output of primitive object 600, which is simply u(0)*w(0) as desired.Next examine the output y(1). The output y(1) is created by the y_(i+1)output of primitive object 601, which is the function:y(1)=y _(i+1) ⁶⁰¹ =u(1)*w _(i+1) ⁶⁰⁰ +y _(i+1) ⁶⁰²In the above equation the superscript indicates the particular objectthat creates that output. Object 600 and object 602 operate as follows:w _(i+1) ⁶⁰⁰ =w(0)u _(i+1) ⁶⁰⁰ =u(1)y _(i+1) ⁶⁰² =u _(i+1) ⁶⁰⁰ *w(1)By combing the last four equations it is seen that:y(1)=u(1)*w(0)+u(0)*w(1)This process of Gaussian elimination continues for the rest for theoutputs y(2) . . . y(6).

Implementation of the described system is straightforward to produce inlight of the above disclosure. As always, implementation details areleft to the system designer. Individual selection of particular hardwareobjects, protocol registers, message formats, etc., are implementationspecific and may need to be discovered empirically. This inventionrepresents a pioneering paradigm shift in the way systems are designedand implemented compared to present methods.

Thus, although particular embodiments for an integrated circuitdevelopment system including hardware and software objects has beendiscussed, it is not intended that such specific references beconsidered limitations on the scope of this invention, but rather thescope is determined by the following claims and their equivalents.

1. An integrated circuit, comprising: a plurality of hardware objectnodes each operating independently from one another, and each having asending port structured to send a data message from its associatedhardware object node, the data message including data and a set ofprotocol information that describes a validity of the data to be sentand indicates an ability for the data to be received by a successiveobject node, and a receiving port structured to receive data for theassociated hardware object node, the data including a set of protocolinformation describing the data received and indicating an ability forits associated object to accept a next set of data; and a communicationnetwork including a plurality of individual, asynchronous andtime-insensitive communication channels coupled between a sending portof a first respective one of the plurality of hardware object nodes anda receiving port of a second respective of one of the plurality of thehardware object nodes.
 2. The integrated circuit of claim 1 wherein thesending port is structured to store the data message indefinitely untilthe successive object node sends a signal to the sending port that thesuccessive object node can accept the data message.
 3. The integratedcircuit of claim 1 wherein the plurality of individual communicationchannels comprises at least two parallel buses.
 4. The integratedcircuit of claim 1 wherein an element of information in the set ofprotocol information indicates membership of the message in a datapacket.
 5. The integrated circuit of claim 1 wherein the objectassociated with the receiving port includes means for generating anacceptance signal without prior knowledge that any next set of data isready to be sent.
 6. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein theobject associated with the receiving port includes an input controllerstructured to generate an acceptance signal.
 7. The integrated circuitof claim 1 wherein the receiving port is coupled to a processor and thedata message comprises a processing instruction.
 8. The integratedcircuit of claim 1 wherein one of the individual communication channelscomprises a multi-node communication network including a plurality ofindividual, asynchronous and time-insensitive communication channels. 9.The integrated circuit of claim 1 wherein the communication networkcomprises a plurality of individual, asynchronous and time-insensitivebuffered communication channels.
 10. The integrated circuit of claim 1,wherein one of the plurality of hardware object nodes is structured togenerate a validity signal for the set of protocol information thatdescribes a validity of the data to be sent.
 11. The integrated circuitof claim 1, wherein one of the plurality of hardware object nodes is amemory unit.
 12. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein each of thesending ports have approximately similar electrical loadingcharacteristics.
 13. An asynchronous communication system in anintegrated circuit, comprising: a plurality of processors eachstructured to operate independent of any other processor; a plurality ofprotocol registers, each protocol register including: a first storagesection for a set of data, a second storage section for a signal thatindicates the validity of the set of data, and a third storage sectionfor a signal that indicates an ability of a successive processor toaccept data, wherein each storage section has an input and an output,and wherein each processor is coupled to at least one protocol registeras an input to the processor and is coupled to at least one otherprotocol register as an output for the processor; and a plurality ofcommunication channels coupled between respective protocol registers.14. The asynchronous communication system of claim 13, wherein theplurality of communication channels comprises a plurality of parallelbuses.
 15. The asynchronous communication system of claim 13, whereinthe plurality of protocol registers further comprises a fourth storagesection for a signal that indicates membership in a packet.
 16. Theasynchronous communication system of claim 13 wherein the plurality ofprotocol registers are clocked by a clock signal.
 17. The asynchronouscommunication system of claim 16 wherein one of the plurality ofprocessors has a clock signal operating at a frequency different than arate of the clock signal of at least one of its attached registers. 18.The asynchronous communication system of claim 17, wherein the processorclock signal is a pseudo-asynchronous clock signal.
 19. The asynchronouscommunication system of claim 13, wherein each processor includes meansfor sending a signal to the input of the third storage section of itscoupled input register that indicates an ability for such processor toaccept data.
 20. The asynchronous communication system of claim 13,wherein each processor includes means for generating and sending asignal to the input of the second storage section of its coupled outputregister that indicates the validity of the set of data.
 21. Theasynchronous communication system of claim 13, wherein propagatinginformation through one of the plurality of protocol registers does notchange the data stored within the one protocol register.
 22. Theasynchronous communication system of claim 13, wherein presence of anadditional protocol register between any two of the processors does notchange the functional characteristics of the asynchronous communicationsystem.
 23. The asynchronous communication system of claim 13, whereinmaintaining information in one of the plurality of protocol registersdoes not change the data stored within the one protocol register. 24.The asynchronous communication system of claim 13, wherein presence ofan additional protocol register between any two of the processors doesnot change the timing characteristics of the asynchronous communicationsystem.
 25. The asynchronous communication system of claim 13, whereinpropagating information through one of the plurality of communicationchannels does not change the data stored within the one communicationchannel.
 26. The asynchronous communication system of claim 13, whereinthe presence of a network of a plurality of communication channelscoupled between any two of the processors does not change the functionalcharacteristics of the asynchronous communication system.
 27. Theasynchronous communication system of claim 13, wherein maintaininginformation in one of the plurality of communication channels does notchange the data stored within the one communication channel.
 28. Theasynchronous communication system of claim 13, wherein the presence of anetwork of a plurality of communication channels coupled between any twoof the processors does not change the timing characteristics of theasynchronous communication system.
 29. The asynchronous communicationsystem of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of communicationchannels has approximately the same electrical loading.
 30. Theasynchronous communication system of claim 13, wherein the processorsare structured to generate message packets and send them to another ofthe processors over at least one of the plurality of communicationchannels.
 31. The asynchronous communication system of claim 30, whereinany of the message packets may remain in one of the protocol registersindefinitely until the third storage section of the protocol registerindicates an ability of a successive processor to accept data.
 32. Theasynchronous communication system of claim 30 wherein the generatedmessage packets contain processing instructions.
 33. The asynchronouscommunication system of claim 30 wherein the generated message packetscontain data.
 34. The asynchronous communication system of claim 30wherein at least one of the protocol registers comprises a plurality ofstorage locations structured to store a message packet as a plurality ofindividual word units.
 35. A method of communicating between a first anda second processor within a multi-processor integrated circuit,comprising: generating a data message; storing the data message in anoutput port as one or more data words, the data message including afirst signal indicating a validity of the data, a second signalindicating an ability of a next successive stage to accept a data word,and a third signal indicating the membership of the one or more datawords in the data message; receiving at the output port a signalindicating a positive signal that the next successive stage is able toaccept the stored data word; storing the positive signal received fromthe next successive stage as the second signal; and after receiving thepositive signal at the output port, sending the message along a physicalcommunication channel to an input port of the second processor.
 36. Themethod of claim 35 wherein sending the message along a physicalcommunication channel comprises sending the data message along aparallel data bus.
 37. The method of claim 35 wherein storing the datamessage in an output port comprises storing the data message in aregister.
 38. The method of claim 35 wherein the second processor maygenerate the positive signal at any time.
 39. The method of claim 35,further comprising generating the first signal indicating a validity ofthe data in the first processor.
 40. The method of claim 35, whereinsending the message along a physical communication channel to an inputport of the second processor comprises sending the message along aphysical communication network that includes a plurality of physicalcommunication channels.
 41. The method of claim 35, wherein sending themessage comprises sending the message along a physical communicationchannel to an input port of the second processor that is running at adifferent clock speed than the first processor.
 42. The method of claim40, further comprising: generating a clock signal for the firstprocessor and for the second processor using pseudo-asynchronousprocesses.
 43. The method of claim 35 wherein storing the data messagein an output port comprises storing the data message in one of aplurality of output ports.